The Gatewood Gators took care of business Friday night, posting a convincing 34-6 victory over the visiting Fullington Academy Trojans from Pinehurst.
The win boosted Gatewood’s record to 6-1 on the season as it prepares to face one of its biggest challenges this season, playing at home this coming Friday against undefeated Edmund Burke Academy Spartans.
Last week’s game got off to a rough start for the Gators, though, as they were forced to punt and Fullington scored on its first possession, going up 6-0 after missing the extra point.
But Gatewood responded very quickly, as Jackson Hewatt made a long run to the end zone just 30 seconds later.
“We woke up and played outstanding after that [initial score against]. We put a lot of pressure on them, and we pretty much completely shut down their run game the rest of the half,” Gatewood head coach Jeff Ratliff said. “And then offensively we got it rolling.”
The score was 13-6 at the end of the quarter after Gatewood kicker Jayden Daniel earned the extra point on the first touchdown, but a two-point conversion attempt fell short on the second.
The Gators then took a 27-6 lead into halftime after quarterback Ames Johnson made a long run to score about midway through the second quarter. Johnson scored again with another run late in the half while Daniel added the extra point each time.
A lot of midfield back-and-forth play dominated most of the third quarter, until with about a minute to go Gatewood scored through the air and Daniel tacked on the extra point to reach what turned out to be the 34-6 final.
At that point, Trojans head coach Brian Breland requested a running clock for the final quarter and Ratliff agreed.
“Of course, we weren’t trying to pour it on those guys. They were a single-A team, they were out of the division, a team down in classification, so that was pretty much our last, I don’t want to call it a tune-up, but it was our last out-of-conference game, our last out-of-division game,” Ratliff said.
Arriving from Waynesboro on Friday will be the Spartans, who also completed their non-region schedule last week with a 14-7 win over Robert Toombs Christian to preserve a perfect record so far this season.
“We’ve got three big games right in a row now, but we don’t even want to look to the other two,” Ratliff stated. “We want to focus only on this week right now because that’s the number-one team in the state. They’re ranked number one and we’re ranked number two.”
Ratliff added he fully expects his guys will come “ready to play” and motivated to excel.
“The message we’ll send this week is that you’re playing a really, really good opponent and you’ve got to have a great week of preparation,” Ratliff said. “You’ve got to do your job, play your role, and you’ve got to be focused – and stay focused.
“But I don’t want my guys too uptight, and they won’t be, they know how to play. The big thing is that we’ve got a really, really good opponent and we need to make sure we keep the focus on that because we’ve got a lot of other things going on this week since it’s Homecoming week, too.
“[Homecoming is] something you’ve got to go ahead and schedule back in the spring so you can get it on the calendar,” Ratliff explained. “So, we end up with our (football) schedule and Burke it’s going to be. Some of my crowd might disagree, but I like playing good teams on Homecoming. I’ve always done it.”
Last year, Gatewood played Central Fellowship for Homecoming, also the number-one ranked team at the time, and that game didn’t go so well, ending in a 31-21 defeat for the Gators. “Hopefully, it’s going to go a little better this Friday,” Ratliff added.
Unfortunately, Gatewood’s star linebacker Evan Bennett remains out of commission with an upper-body injury, but Ratliff said he’s recovering as expected and should be available later this season.
Meanwhile, Ratliff said Bennett continues to attend all practices and team functions and even helps out with a little coaching of younger players during practices.
The Gators and their fans also recognized and supported longtime Gatewood mom and team photographer Dawn Sinclair during halftime at last week’s game. Sinclair, a mom to Gatewood players and a frequent photo contributor to The Eatonton Messenger is battling cancer, and the staff here at Smith Communications joins in wishing her only the best for the future.